Health psychology

714910
research-article2017
HPO0010.1177/2055102917714910Health Psychology OpenHilton and Johnston
Theoretical Contribution/Commentary
Health psychology: It’s not what
you do, it’s the way that you do it
Health Psychology Open
July-December 2017: 1­–10
© The Author(s) 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1177/2055102917714910
DOI: 10.1177/2055102917714910
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Charlotte Emma Hilton1 and Lynne Halley Johnston2
Abstract
Despite the growth in theoretical understandings of health behaviour and standardised approaches to health interventions
(e.g. behaviour change taxonomies), health psychology has paid comparatively less attention to the importance of the
implementation processes – ‘how to’ rather than ‘what to’ of such interventions. The clinical and interpersonal skills
that often reflect these implementation processes are poorly defined within the health psychology literature. The level
of proficiency in such skills expected of Health and Care Professions Council registered practitioner health psychologists
is unclear and poorly documented within the UK training requirements. This article explores the potential impact of this
and offers some pragmatic solutions.
Keywords
clinical health psychology, critical health psychology, practice processes, public health psychology, treatment
Introduction
The discipline of health psychology developed from the
growing recognition of the contribution of psychological
processes to health and illness. Its aim and focus being to
generate and test theory, and translate these theories into
practice (Ogden, 2012). At its core is the notion of a biopsycho-social approach to understanding health and illness
(Engel, 1977); a concept raised in prominent British medical journals more than 80 years ago (e.g. Billington, 1933).
The primary intention of this approach is the recognition of
the impact of a wide range of biological, psychological and
social factors on wellness and chronic illness. These important features, which are often more broadly considered as
the wider determinants of health (Dahlgren and Whitehead,
1991), are considered integral to the assessment and treatment of illness and disease (Andrasik et al., 2015).
Since the conception of health psychology, there has
been a wealth of theoretical and empirical contributions to
support our understanding of health behaviour as well as
some (pre-existing) theoretical proposals that have been
adopted to help understand health choice behaviours (e.g.
smoking; physical activity). Such theoretical contributions
include the Health Belief Model (HBM; Hochbaum, 1958;
for example, Janz and Becker, 1984), the Theory of Planned
Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991; for example, Kothe et al.,
2012) and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM; Prochaska
and Velicer, 1997; for example, Armitage, 2010) all of
which have been consistently utilised within a health psychology context.
Health psychology has been recognised as the most rapidly developing field in contemporary academic psychology (Kaplan, 2009). However, while the theoretical
contributions continue to gain momentum, comparatively
less is known about the clinical and interpersonal skills
required to translate such theory into practice. Pavord and
Donnelly (2015) and Clarkson (2003) provide a more
detailed exploration of what is meant by clinical and interpersonal skills referred to throughout this article. Although,
in brief, we refer to the importance of the specific skills and
strategies utilised by the practitioner that help to enhance
the collaborative and therapeutic relationship with patients
– the repeated importance of attention to the therapeutic
processes and interpersonal alliance integral to health
1Coventry
2City
University, UK
Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Corresponding author:
Charlotte Emma Hilton, Coventry University, Health and Life Scienes,
School of Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Coventry
CV15FB, UK.
Email: charlotte.hilton@coventry.ac.uk
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
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Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
2
consultations (Martin et al., 2000). As the 1980’s pop band
Bananarama and Fun Boy Three identified in their
renowned record: ‘it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you
do it (that’s what gets results)’ (Bananarama and Fun Boy
Three, 1982). It is this important emphasis upon the implementation process that is currently lacking in the United
Kingdom (UK) health psychology training and that we
illustrate in this article. Metaphorically, it is as though
health psychology has a range of food ingredients that
appear to work well but little clarity about how these ingredients should be organised and implemented (i.e. detailed
guidance regarding the method of how to combine and
work with the ingredients).
Contributions of health psychology to
understanding behaviour change
A recent contribution to the field is the development of
approaches to reducing ill-health choice behaviours through
the use of behaviour change taxonomies (BCT) (e.g.
Abraham and Michie, 2008; Michie et al., 2011). However,
such BCTs are limited to a list of vague components regarding what may be effective in supporting someone through
change (e.g. provide general encouragement) rather than
providing specific strategies and examples. Furthermore,
there is scant attention as to how these vague components
should be implemented and by whom, under what conditions and why. This is rather akin to a chef being presented
with a list of vague ingredients without access to specific
quantities or a specific recipe. While a few expert chefs
may be able to design an innovative recipe from such a
vague list of ingredients, this is not likely to be sufficient
for the vast majority of chefs training to work in practice
(i.e. restaurants).
There is a growing demand within the health psychology professions (British Psychological Society (BPS),
2008) although there is a lack of clear clinical demonstrations of how to implement the skills required to work in
practice. For example, the behaviour change wheel (e.g.
Michie et al., 2011) has gained in popularity despite the
tool being limited to characterising and designing behaviour change interventions rather than developing the sophisticated level of clinical skills and interpersonal processes
required for practitioners to be able to support individuals
through health behaviour change. In essence, the where,
when, why, who and how of practice has been relatively
ignored in favour of vague suggestions of what practice
ingredients might include. Further, important characteristics such as empathy, warmth and positifity, for example
have yet to be researched adequately within a BCT context
(Marks et al., 2018). This is problematic because we know
from the existing clinical literature that a key factor that
makes a significant difference to the success of treatment is
the strength of the therapeutic alliance (Roth and Fonagy,
2005). More than 30 years of psychotherapy research has
Health Psychology Open 
shown therapeutic alliance to be a consistent predictor of
outcomes (Horvath and Bedi, 2002; Horvath et al., 2011;
Horvath and Symonds, 1991; Martin et al., 2000).
The intention of such taxonomies and strategies is to
offer some level of standardisation of techniques to facilitate the replication of interventions that have been shown to
be effective (Abraham and Michie, 2008). However, there
is a danger in ignoring all-important ‘individual differences’ and a call to limit this approach within health psychology has recently been made (Ogden, 2016). In a clinical
context, what this means is that BCTs assume that the
change behaviour(s) have been formulated in a way that tap
into the specifics of the underlying causes. However, this
often is not the case. The popularity of taxonomies is most
likely because health psychology is a comparatively young
discipline and, like many others before, may have succumbed to the tempting lure of standardisation as a method
of scientifically and consistently predicting human behaviour – a demonstration of health psychology as a legitimate
‘science’. However, this positivistic approach is ill-fitted to
psychology because the complexity of human behaviour is
such that it often cannot be studied and observed in a determined and regular manner as positivism would suggest
(e.g. Collins, 2010). To return to the cooking analogy, more
is needed regarding how to prepare and combine ingredients (e.g. formulation as a collaborative conceptualisation
process; theoretical orientation of the therapist) and importantly how they should be cooked (clinical and interpersonal skills) to address important interpersonal processes
(e.g. Teyber and McClure, 2009) and establish a strong collaborative therapeutic alliance (e.g. Norcross, 2005). The
importance of the ‘therapeutic relationship’ and ‘building
alliance’ is acknowledged in the BPS Qualification in
Health Psychology (QHP) Stage 2 Candidate Handbook for
trainee health psychologists (BPS, 2015a). Although no
guidance on how this may be achieved is provided. This
exemplifies how the health psychology discipline may be
falling short of its potential to contribute more to clinical
practice and reflect the aims of the discipline better in terms
of both theory and applied practice.
A further complication to the growing interest in the
identification of ‘effective’ behaviour change techniques is
the publication of recent guidance that has been developed
to support this aim (National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence (NICE), 2014). This guidance lacks specific
evidence-based recommendations as to the method and
style of delivery (clinical skills and interpersonal processes)
that are likely to initiate and sustain change behaviour. This
lack of guidance available on how to implement behavioural
counselling methods has been previously noted (Kaplan,
2009). This may have transpired because such guidance is
often produced by academics and policy makers with typically limited or no experience of working directly with
patients within a clinical health setting. This lack of implementation guidance is also aggravated by the fact that policy
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Hilton and Johnston
documents are two-dimensional with no audio-visual demonstrations of the clinical and interpersonal skills required
to deliver the practice recommendations. Given the integral
role such guidance plays in shaping applied health (psychology) practice, this distinct lack of detail regarding the how to
of supporting individuals through a process of behaviour
change has undoubtedly contributed to the limited attention
to skill development and lack of appropriate and ongoing
supervision within the health psychology discipline.
Supervision and professional recognition
The BPS requires that those who supervise health psychology doctoral trainees attend a series of four workshops to be
included on the Register of Applied Psychology Practice
Supervisors (RAAPS). These workshops are intended to
assist supervisors to understand models of supervision and
approaches to leadership. They provide mentoring in how
best to manage and support students through an academic
programme of study rather than how to provide clinical
supervision of the interpersonal skills required for practice.
This may contribute to the self-perpetuating cycle of clinical
and interpersonal skill deficit of health psychologists which
is particularly concerning given the eligibility for health psychologists to work in clinical practice. It is recognised that
not all health psychologists lack the clinical skills required to
work in practice; yet as a consequence of what has been outlined thus far, it is reasonable to suggest that many do.
The BPS does not formally recognise clinical health
psychology through divisional membership although there
is a Faculty of Clinical Health Psychology (see www.bps.
org). The BPS has published a briefing paper for ‘clinical
health psychologists’ working in the National Health
Service (NHS) (BPS, 2008) although this more accurately
refers to clinical psychologists working within physical
healthcare settings. A more recent survey of clinical psychology posts in physical health would suggest that the
demand for this is growing (BPS, 2015b). While there is no
formal division of clinical health psychology, that there is a
BPS faculty and a briefing paper aimed at bridging the gap
between clinical and health psychology demonstrates the
close relationship between the two disciplines and necessity for clinical skills within healthcare practice.
Clinical skills deficit of health psychology
The BPS (2008) briefing paper clearly demonstrates how
the knowledge, training and experience of clinical psychologists is well suited to meeting the psychological healthcare needs of patients with physical health conditions in
receipt of care through the NHS. Additionally, a recent publication from NHS Education for Scotland (NES) (2015)
clearly maps the necessity for psychosocial interventions
for people with persistent physical symptoms. Consequently,
it is difficult to understand what the unique contribution of
a practicing health psychologist is, especially given the
greater attention to clinical skills training within current
doctoral training courses for clinical psychology in the
UK. A closer look at what is required for health psychology chartered membership (BPS, 2015a) and registration
with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
(2015) as a practitioner health psychologist offers little
clarity in this respect. For added context, what follows is
an exploration of the current training requirements for
health psychologists in the UK. In this review, we offer
suggestions to demonstrate how the clinical skills training
deficit within health psychology could be addressed by
adopting elements from clinical psychology training. We
argue that this offers the potential for the evolution of a
new clinical health psychology discipline that is recognised as a formal division within the BPS. The potential
benefits of doing so are also presented.
Training requirements for health
psychologists in the United Kingdom
In the UK, health psychologists undertake two stages of
training: Stage 1 reflects what is described in the Stage 2
Handbook as ‘the underpinning knowledge base’ (BPS
2015a: 2) and is typically associated with an MSc programme of study. Trainees may then progress by completing either a BPS accredited Doctorate in Health Psychology
or BPS (QHP) Stage 2. As part of the latter route, trainee
health psychologists are required to undertake 2 years (or
part-time equivalent) of assessed supervised practice and
health psychology competencies are demonstrated through
a portfolio of evidence and oral examination. The competencies are defined by five broad areas: generic professional
competence (e.g. ‘sufficient professional experience to
practice as an autonomous practitioner’ BPS 2015a: 26),
behaviour change interventions competence, research competence, consultancy competence, and teaching and training competence (see BPS (2015a) for a full review). The
distinction that is made between the underpinning knowledge base of Stage 1 and the demonstration of competence
of Stage 2 would suggest that trainees progressing to Stage
2 are required to shift from ‘knowledge and knowing’ to
‘skills and demonstrating’. This distinction is a central consideration that the following critique of these required competencies will address. Specific questions include the
following: how well defined are the competencies for clinical skills? Are clinical skills assessed in a way that requires
the person to be able to demonstrate and implement the specific skill or simply to be able to describe/define it in a more
theoretical, abstract or ‘academic’ way? How well does this
actually prepare trainee health psychologists for applied
clinical practice? The research and teaching and training
competence have been omitted from the following critique
because both are more clearly defined in the Stage 2
Handbook within the context of academic settings.
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Generic professional competence
To demonstrate the ‘generic professional competence’, the
Candidate Handbook stipulates that ‘candidates must demonstrate that they have sufficient professional experience to
practice as an autonomous practitioner’ (BPS, 2015a: 26).
However, there is no clear guidance as to what is considered
sufficient professional experience and the clinical skills that
are required to practice as an autonomous practitioner. This
lack of clarity is particularly apparent when candidates are
advised that they are required to ‘use appropriate interpersonal skills (to establish rapport, empathy, engage in active
listening skills, use of various type of questioning skills) to
initiate, develop, maintain and end therapeutic and professional relationships with clients/service users’. (BPS, 2015a:
28). There is no suggestion of what established therapeutic
micro-skills are deemed ‘appropriate’ to demonstrate these
skills as there is within other skill assessments frameworks
that are routinely used to assess ‘competency levels’ with a
particular form of therapy (e.g. the use of the Cognitive
Therapy Rating Scale (CTS-R) within skill assessment for
cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or the use of the
Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) coding system for the assessment of practitioner competency
within motivational interviewing (MI)). Furthermore, there
is a lack of guidance regarding how many hours of direct
client contact is required to demonstrate the implementation
of such approaches or how much clinical supervision should
be provided (i.e. number of supervision hours or contacts
per client). The only guidance offered in the handbook in
this latter respect is that candidates engage in ‘effective
supervisory relationships for their professional practice’ but
again, lack of clarity regarding what is considered an effective supervisory relationship and what exactly professional
practice entails, means that opportunities for trainee health
psychologists to enhance their clinical skills and have them
appropriately assessed are potentially lacking. In addition,
as mentioned previously, because the compulsory BPS
supervisor workshops (for RAAPS registration) do not
require clinical skill demonstration, this serves to perpetuate
the problem because supervisors may be unable to facilitate
the competency development of trainees in this respect.
Unfortunately, the methods of assessment for the generic
professional competence unit do not allow for the consideration of the candidates’ clinical and interpersonal process
skills. A logbook documenting ‘professional practice’ and
the experiences that have enabled candidates to develop an
understanding of the ‘substantial body of knowledge within
health psychology’ is required alongside a reflexive report
summarising personal and professional development as a
health psychologist and a short (1000 word) report that documents the inclusion of service users and carers within the
candidates training activity. Again, a logbook and reflexive
report are arguably only able to demonstrate knowledge, not
skills. There is no opportunity for candidates to demonstrate
Health Psychology Open 
a level of clearly defined clinical competencies sufficient to
work in practice.
Behaviour change interventions competence
Health psychology trainees are advised that the behaviour
change competency is underpinned by the Health Behaviour
Change Competency Framework (HBCC; Dixon and
Johnston, 2010). The HBCC is represented by three domains:
foundation competencies (e.g. knowledge of professional
and ethical guidelines), behaviour change competencies (e.g.
ability to take a generic assessment) and behaviour change
techniques (e.g. reassurance, general information and verbal
persuasion); these techniques are categorised into low-,
medium- and high-intensity interventions. However, the
HBCC suffers from the same critical limitation as BCTs
referred to earlier (e.g. Abraham and Michie, 2008) and the
recent NICE (2014) guidance in that there is no specificity
regarding how these competencies should be implemented
and the clinical skills required to do so. Furthermore, it is
generally accepted that providing ‘reassurance’ is ineffective
therapeutically because it is reliant upon external support
(Westbrook et al., 2007). Similarly, verbal persuasion has
been considered ineffective in supporting behaviour change
as early as 1983 (Miller, 1983). Accordingly, it is difficult to
understand what the evidence-base is for the proposal of
such competencies. While the HBCC makes reference to the
use of MI (Miller and Rollnick, 2012), rather than more
accurately being acknowledged as a behaviour change counselling approach, it is cited within the context of a behaviour
change technique. Again, no specific details that reflect the
clinical skills required to deliver MI are identified (i.e. how
to do it rather than what to do).
The HBCC guidance states that ‘the Stages of Change
Model provides the theoretical model of behaviour change’
(Dixon and Johnston, 2010: 41) but then explains how the
model does not adequately account for how individuals
change behaviour and instead proposes a new model upon
which the competency framework is based. While it is
acknowledged that the competency framework is not an
academic document, without adequate supporting citations
to published literature, it is difficult to understand how such
assertions have been derived. One can only assume that the
‘Stages of Change Model’ that is cited refers to a single
component of the integrative TTM (Prochaska and Velicer,
1997). Crucially, the TTM also includes self-efficacy, decisional balance, and 10 cognitive and behavioural processes
of change as critical components of the change process (see
Hutchison et al., 2009). These other critical components of
the TTM appear to have been completely overlooked by the
HBCC.
It is noteworthy that the QHP Stage 2 Candidate
Handbook specifically refers to the requirement that trainees ‘formulate a working hypothesis/model of the interactions between biological, medical, psychological, social and
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Hilton and Johnston
cultural factors relevant to the target health behaviour
(gained from the evidence base and the assessment process)’
(BPS 2015a: 31). Indeed, the notion of a candidate’s ability
to formulate runs throughout the behaviour change interventions competency, which is also referred to as a ‘psychological intervention competency’. However, what is consistent
throughout the handbook is that there is no guidance regarding how a formulation should be done (e.g. a collaborative
process of formulating and reformulating with the client/
patient to help engage and to ensure that both parties are
working together on a set of often linked problems or
issues). There are no proposed examples of suitable processes involved (e.g. formulation and re-formulation diagrams; detailed assessment and interim reports in therapy)
or the function of and specific methods involved (i.e. the 5
Ps approach to formulation (see Hutchinson and Johnston,
2013; Johnston and Hutchinson, 2016); or different theoretical approaches to formulation such as those promoted within
different schools of therapy (see Johnstone and Dallos,
2014)). The BPS has published good practice guidelines for
the use of psychological formulation (BPS, 2011) and there
is no cross-referencing or signposting to this seminal document. Crucially, there is always a risk within areas of clinical health practice that interventions prematurely focus on a
single medical (physical) consequence (e.g. obesity) without a fuller appreciation of underlying and maintaining biopsycho-social causes (see Hutchison and Johnston, 2013;
Johnston et al., 2017; Watt et al., 2016a, 2016b).
Different clinical/applied approaches to therapeutic formulation (see Johnstone and Dallos, 2014, for a comprehensive review) are largely ignored within health
psychology texts and clinical health texts tend to favour
pre-defined condition specific models (e.g. Nikčević et al.,
2006). Consequently, to return to the earlier cooking analogy, trainees are provided with a list of pre-defined ingredients for a set menu with no guidance regarding how to
prepare and cook the meal, whether the client/patient actually wants the meal, how many courses they require, if they
wish to eat in (self-help), have a take away (online), go to a
restaurant (groups/manualised approaches) or pay for a personal cooking lesson to enable them to make the meal again
and again (1-to-1 therapy). If the patient does decide they
want to eat (engage in therapy), there is very little choice of
restaurant (approach to therapy or theoretical orientation)
and the skill level of those who are cooking is not known or
closely supervised by people who can actually cook. Access
to a personal cooking lesson (therapist) is often costly or
involves a long wait and the special ingredients associated
with a top coach (therapeutic alliance factors) is a rare commodity that is often ignored completely.
Consultancy competence
Health psychology consultancy is defined in the Stage 2
Handbook as ‘the use of specialist health psychology skills
and knowledge to provide a service to an external business
client, for example, public, private or third sector organisations’ (BPS, 2015a: 37). An example of a consultancy request
provided in the handbook includes an NHS Trust who may
wish to improve the outcomes of a diabetes programme and
therefore requests psychology informed training for staff,
although the details of what this may comprise are unclear. A
further example suggests a consultant to support a minority
group to improve their exercise levels. Given the lack of
focus and guidance within the UK training requirements,
programmes designed by health psychologists that aim to
support individuals manage chronic conditions and change
behaviour (e.g. exercise) are at risk of being limited in their
capacity to utilise the very clinical skills that often lead to
better outcomes (e.g. Horvath and Bedi, 2002). The training
requirements of health psychologists may well enable those
offering consultancy to enhance the theoretical and epidemiological knowledge of those requesting the service but as
it currently stands, health psychologists are arguably poorly
equipped to fully implement clinically/therapeutically
informed training and consultancy.
Assessment of qualified health
psychologists
The assessment of health psychology trainees further
reflects the emphasis on the what (knowledge focused) at
the expense of the how (skill demonstration/implementation focused) because candidates are assessed via a portfolio of competence and an oral examination. Other than (as
part of the behaviour change competency) the requirement
for a trainees supervisor to observe face-to-face sessions
conducted with clients, there is no opportunity for the demonstration, observation, supervision and appropriate assessment of clinical and interpersonal process skills. Candidates
are advised that ‘more than a single session of observation
may be required’ (BPS, 2015a: 30) which seems extremely
limited with respect to what is normally required to support
the development of clinical and interpersonal process skills.
For example, those undertaking the BPS counselling training route are required to demonstrate ‘client contact hours
and supervision showing 450 hours of supervised practice
with supervision at a minimum ratio of one hour of supervision for every eight hours of client contact’ (BPS, 2014a:
17) and standards for doctoral programmes in clinical psychology in the UK reflect similar requirements (BPS,
2014b). Of course, the quality of supervision received and
its capacity to support the treatment fidelity of a therapeutic
approach is also somewhat dependent upon the supervisors
level of proficiency which again given the lack of specificity for Stage 2 training is likely to be limited for health
psychologists.
There is no requirement to demonstrate proficiency in how
to formulate collaboratively with a patient/client or to demonstrate therapeutic clinical skills via the use of video-taped
6
submissions of a trainees practice. In disciplines where health
professionals are required to demonstrate the specific skills
required to work with patients in practice (e.g. clinical psychology), it is typical that both real-time observation of practice or observations of recorded consultations will be assessed.
A range of established coding tools have been developed
within some areas of therapeutic work. For example, the
CTS-R is commonly used for assessing trainees practice
within CBT (James et al., 2001); while the MITI (4.2.1)
(Moyers et al., 2015) is one of several coding tools used
within MI (see www.interviewing.org for alternatives). While
such coding approaches to the assessment of interpersonal
process skills can be somewhat reductionist (Hilton et al.,
2016), they provide a measure of skill proficiency more accurately and transparently than a knowledge-focused portfolio
or oral examination.
If we accept that there is a necessity for health psychology and psychologists to have both a theoretical and an
applied component (Ogden, 2012), then we need to consider how to better reflect this through the process of training and supervision. Without the requirement to develop,
demonstrate and assess their clinical and interpersonal
skills, we need to consider exactly what it is that we are
training health psychologists to actually do? The challenge
of equipping practicing psychologists with adequate
applied clinical skills is not exclusive to health psychology.
For example, similar difficulties have been observed within
the sport and exercise psychology discipline (Hutchison
and Johnston, 2013). Indeed, it is reasonable to suggest that
all practicing psychologists would benefit from the requirement to undertake training to enable them to more fully
demonstrate and implement clinical and interpersonal skills
with ongoing supervision as part of their core training and
continued professional development. Regardless of the discipline, practicing psychologists are in the business of
working with people; often with complex needs and within
complex environments and contexts. Therefore, improving
opportunities to develop clinical and interpersonal skills
has the capacity to enhance practicing psychologists’ ability to create a therapeutic alliance with individuals (regardless of the context) which has been consistently
demonstrated to improve outcomes (e.g. Horvath and Bedi,
2002; Horvath and Symonds, 1991; Martin et al., 2000;
Norcross, 2005).
HCPC requirements
Qualified health psychologists who complete Stage 2 training are eligible for registration as a practitioner psychologist
with the HCPC. There are 15 standards of proficiency that
the HCPC require to be registered as a practitioner psychologist (see HCPC, 2015) and supplementary discipline-specific
guidance is also provided. For example, all practitioner psychologists are required to ‘understand the key concepts of the
knowledge base relevant to their profession’ (HCPC, 2015:
Health Psychology Open 
13) and supplementary guidance is provided for clinical,
counselling, educational, forensic, health, occupational and
sport and exercise psychologists. Health psychologists are
advised that within this proficiency context they are required
to ‘understand the epidemiology of health and illness’,
‘understand applications of health psychology and professional issues’ and ‘understand healthcare in professional settings’ (HCPC, 2015: 18). While it is acknowledged that these
are all relevant to health psychology as a discipline, they
seem far removed from what would be required to work therapeutically with an individual in practice. In this respect, the
supplementary guidance for the clinical psychology discipline: ‘understand psychological models related to how biological, sociological and circumstantial or life-event-related
factors impinge on psychological processes to affect psychological wellbeing’ (HCPC, 2015: 14) and the counselling
psychology discipline: ‘understand the therapeutic relationship and alliance’ (HCPC, 2015: 15) seem far more applicable to practitioner health psychologists.
Similarly, practitioner psychologists are ‘to be able to
draw on appropriate knowledge and skills to inform practice’ (HCPC, 2015: 20). Health psychologists are advised
that they should ‘be able, on the basis of psychological
formulation, to implement psychological therapy or other
interventions appropriate to the presenting problem, and to
the psychological and social circumstances of the service
user’ (HCPC, 2015: 23) and ‘be able to integrate and
implement therapeutic approaches based on a range of
evidence-based psychological interventions’ (HCPC,
2015: 27). However, as we have seen Stage 2 training
requirements for health psychologists are lacking in this
respect. Without specific training or requirement to demonstrate therapeutic approaches to formulation (e.g. 5 Ps as
outlined earlier), psychological therapy or therapeutic
approaches, it is difficult to understand how health psychologists would be deemed ‘fit to practice’ without any
additional training and appropriate skill assessment other
than that required for QHP Stage 2. It is interesting to note
that clinical psychologists are required to demonstrate the
use of CBT as part of this HCPC proficiency yet no such
approach is specifically detailed for health psychologists
who as practicing psychologists may often find themselves
working with individuals to help them manage persistent
physical symptoms (see NES Scotland 2015 Matrix
Tables); all of which have similar clinical and interpersonal skill requirements to that of clinical psychologists.
The necessity for practicing health psychologists to have a
similar level of clinical and interpersonal skill proficiency
to those of clinical psychologists is perhaps further magnified when we consider that approximately 80 per cent of
general practitioner (GP) appointments relate to persistent
physical symptoms and that those with such conditions are
‘two to three times more likely to experience mental health
problems than the general population’ (NES, 2015: 4).
Thus, chronic physical ill-health conditions commonly
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Hilton and Johnston
present alongside psychological co-morbidities such as
anxiety and depression (Qin et al., 2014).
Recommendations for health
psychology training and practice
There is a need to re-address the purpose and agree the practice boundaries of the health psychology discipline within
the UK. This is particularly important given that BPS chartered membership for health psychology provides eligibility
for HCPC registration and enables those qualified to work
directly with patients in practice. However, if the skills to do
so are not a requirement of Stage 2 training and are not demonstrated by trainees or assessed adequately we have no
way of knowing whether health psychologists are fit to practice in this specific respect. What follows are some training
and practice recommendations derived from the current
challenges and shortfalls within health psychology.
Enhance clinical and interpersonal skills:
formulation and MI
Health psychologists would benefit from clearly documented
competency-based clinical and interpersonal skills training,
appropriate supervision and the requirement to demonstrate
these skills through appropriate approaches to assessment
throughout Stage 2. Health psychologists are required to formulate although there is a lack of guidance within the QHP
Stage 2 Candidate Handbook (BPS, 2015a) or mainstream
health psychology literature as to what should be expected
when they formulate. MI is also specifically referred to
within the documents that are designed to support health psychology trainees achieve the required competencies (BPS,
2015a; HBCC; Dixon and Johnston, 2010) and it is also
referred to in the popular BCT developed by Abraham and
Michie (2008). However, again there is no guidance in any of
these documents that details what it is, how to do it, how to
access appropriate training and supervision, and how to
assess proficiency and treatment fidelity (i.e. that a practitioners skills accurately demonstrate the approach). If it is
deemed that health psychologists are to demonstrate these
clinical skills in practice, appropriate training and assessment of skills needs to be incorporated into the QHP Stage 2
requirements.
Formulation, or what is also referred to as case formulation or case conceptualisation (cf. Kuyken et al., 2011), was
initially developed for use within a clinical psychology
context. However, the approach has been extended to a
range of health contexts such as obesity, Type 1 diabetes,
cancer treatment and chronic pain management (see
Nikčević et al., 2006). Central to case formulation is the
notion of a collaborative approach between the client and
practitioner to mutually generate plausible explanations for
the problems experienced. One generic formulation model
which is widely used within clinical psychology is referred
to as ‘the five Ps’; defined as: presenting issues, predisposing factors, precipitating factors, perpetuating factors and
protective factors (see Johnstone and Dallos, 2006, 2014;
Macneil et al., 2012). The practical skills of health psychologists could be enhanced by specifically including the
requirement to demonstrate formulation skills in this way
as part of QHP Stage 2 training or exclusively for those
who wish to register as a HCPC practitioner psychologist.
Indeed, a checklist of best practice characteristics of formulation is already available (BPS, 2011: Appendix 1) and
could be utilised as part of the assessment for health psychology trainees.
Similarly, if health psychologists are expected to utilise
MI, then appropriate training is required. MI is a complex
behaviour change counselling method that was initially
developed to support individuals with problem drinking
and unhealthy addictive behaviours (Miller, 1983). MI
has been conceptualised as ‘a collaborative conversation
style for strengthening a person’s own motivation and
commitment to change’ (Miller and Rollnick, 2012: 12).
Since its initial conception, MI has grown in popularity
and has been used to both reduce ill-health behaviours
(e.g. smoking cf. Efraimsson et al., 2012) and promote
health-enhancing behaviours (e.g. physical activity cf.
Gourlan et al., 2013). Training in MI varies in duration
although typically a 3-day course with follow-up supervision that is tailored around eight stages of learning is considered a good starting point to provide trainees with a
grounding in the approach (see Miller and Moyers, 2006).
However, what is noteworthy is that it is the interpersonal
skills of the practitioner that are deemed critical to predicting outcomes for MI consultations (Moyers, 2014). To
develop proficiency, attendance at more advanced workshops and ongoing supervision are recommended alongside the assessment of practitioner skills via observation
of MI practice. The use of the MITI 4.2.1 (Moyers et al.,
2015) is recommended to offer a transparent approach to
coding and coaching and to aid the development of proficiency. This is a critical consideration if MI continues to
be integrated into the development of taxonomies and
continues to be suggested as a useful approach for health
psychologists working in behaviour change. Yet, both
BCTs and the current training/assessment requirements of
UK health psychologists do not reflect what is required to
be proficient in MI.
Assess clinical and interpersonal skills
appropriately
Clearly, the current assessment requirements for QHP
(written portfolio and oral examination) are unsuitable and
inappropriate to establish a candidate’s level of proficiency
in the skills deemed essential for applied health psychology
practice (i.e. as stipulated by the HCPC). Therefore, the
8
current approaches to the assessment of trainee health psychologists in the UK require updating to allow for adequate
consideration of a candidates demonstration of clinical and
interpersonal skills (rather than level of knowledge and
understanding alone).
Practitioners interested in developing their clinical and
interpersonal skills often do so by attending appropriate
training and engaging in opportunities to assess skills via
ongoing coaching, critical self-reflection, audio-video analysis of mock (and where ethically viable, real) consultations
and assessment via appropriate coding tools such as the
MITI (Moyers et al., 2015) or CTS-R (James et al., 2001).
However, as mentioned previously, such scales are rather
reductionist in that they do not fully capture the complexity
of the clinical processes involved in a therapeutic interaction.
Therefore, the use of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data
Analysis Systems such as NVivo (www.qsrinternational.
com) has recently been encouraged to aid this process of
clinical skill development (Johnston et al., 2015).
Formalise a new clinical health psychology
discipline
If health psychologists are required to work directly with
patients and individuals with complex physical illness that
often present with mental ill-health co-morbidities (Qin
et al., 2014) and also support individuals through the behaviour change process, then one of the following changes to
the QHP training requirements must be implemented: (a)
that health psychology trainees intending to practice, and
become HCPC registered as a practitioner psychologist, are
required to demonstrate clinical interpersonal skills (e.g.
collaborative case formulation/CBT and MI) and are
assessed through appropriate qualitative (i.e. coaching,
clinical supervision and clinical process assessment via
NVivo, for example) and quantitative (i.e. established coding tools, for example, MITI and CTS-R) methods, or (b)
that the discipline of clinical health psychology is officially
recognised by a formal division of the BPS and that the
necessity to demonstrate clinical interpersonal skills
becomes the requirement of this discipline and not that of
health psychology. It is reasonable to suggest that the current QHP requirements would be suitable for health psychologists working in academic settings or those that do not
require direct contact with patients.
From a feasibility perspective, it may be more reasonable
to suggest that the formal recognition of a new clinical health
psychology discipline/division would enable academic institutions to respond well. For example, it is likely those UK
universities that offer postgraduate programmes in health
psychology and clinical psychology (e.g. MSc, Prof Doc,
PhD) need only share modules from these programmes to
develop new postgraduate programmes of study in clinical
health psychology. Doing so would also facilitate clarity of
Health Psychology Open 
the professional boundaries of both health psychology and
the newly recognised clinical health discipline.
Conclusion
Enhancing the clinical and interpersonal skills of health
psychologists and/or clinical health psychologists in the
manner outlined has the capacity to meet the Stage 2
requirements and HCPC requirements of practitioner health
psychologists more thoroughly and transparently. There is
a critical necessity to address the current shortfall in such
skills for health psychologists who are trained in the UK to
avoid health psychology becoming too heavily theoretically weighted and assessed via means that only allow for
the demonstration of knowledge rather than applied skills.
The current approach to training and assessment leaves
practicing health psychologists ill-equipped to work
directly with patients. In short, if health psychologists wish
to work in practice, then they need the clinical skills to do
so. ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it – that
really is what gets results and this has been consistently
demonstrated in the literature (e.g. Rogers, 1961; Roth and
Fonagy, 2005; Schöttke et al., 2016). The current training
and assessment requirements for health psychology need to
be updated accordingly. Alternatively, we propose that the
BPS to recognise a new Division of Clinical Health
Psychology that would respond to this need and to amend
the current QHP Stage 2 requirements such that they are
solely focused upon the requirement for candidates to work
epidemiologically, theoretically and academically (and for
there to be no requirement to work clinically).
Author’s Note
Lynne Halley Johnston is the Director of Halley Johnston Associ­
ates Limited http://www.halleyjohnstonassociates.co.uk and her
email id is lynnejohnston@halleyjohnstonassociates.co.uk.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to acknowledge Dr Jan Moring for her valuable
contribution to the preparation of this paper.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
authorship and/or publication of this article.
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